Re: upgrade fund
On Mon, Mar 26, 2001 at 11:41:50PM +0100, Robin Szemeti wrote: Usually when people talk about servers with 600 gigabytes of data its fair to assume that their will be a considerable load on them, clearly thats not the case here .. so I'm sure IDE will be just fine. 500Gb - RAID-5 means I have to 'waste' a drive. I know, half a terabyte seems a little silly for personal use, but I've probably got tenth of that already in divxs, aiffs (I'm a location sound recordist as well, and I archive *everything*), mp3s ... and that's excluding the archive of ISO9660 images that I've downloaded or created myself. Pity, I know of some very nice rack mount RAID solutions with fibrechannel architecture and up to a terrabyte in 3U ... sure you can;t be tempted ? ;) I can be *tempted* but I doubt the bank account would stand it. sigh if only it was someone elses money ... -- David Cantrell | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david/ This is a signature. There are many like it but this one is mine. ** I read encrypted mail first, so encrypt if your message is important ** PGP signature
Re: upgrade fund
i'd like to do it via dabs.com, because their interface is useable and i've not personally had any problems with them. i'll pick only in-stock stuff because i understand that they can be slacker than they advertise when it comes to re-stocking. jo would hopefully oversee the process so i don't end up ordering bananas by mistake. I ordered a HD from dabs.com last Thursday, the interface said they had 76 in stock. After registering, paying and completing the order, suddenly all the stock had vanished. It's now Monday and they are still awaiting stock. This could be an isolated case I suppose...but I've bought one from a computer fair now and have cancelled the order. Yes - RAM is sooo cheap at the moment - get loads! /Robert
Re: upgrade fund
On Mon, 26 Mar 2001, you wrote: [buying a hard disk] Anyone know of any good sources of cheap, BIG hard disks atm? Like in the 70 to 100Gb range, IDE? Speed not an issue, reliability is as these are for my server. I need^Wwant six, and would rather not pay the 250-odd quid for reliability you want scsi .. ever wondered why scsi costs more? .. the drives are generally built to a better spec. when it comes to servers for speed you want scsi ...esp under linux .. (ISTR that the 2.4 kernel will have ultra-ata 66 support .. prior to that you just get basic IDE AFAIK) scsi multithreads, IDE doesn't.. this makes quite a difference on multi-process applications .. esp. servers when a scsi device goes down it often leaves the bus usable, when an IDE goes down it usually kills the other drive its master/slave to. Its not uncommon for the other port of the usually integrated IDE controller to hang at this point. If you are going to use multiple IDE try and hang them all as masters on as many controller cards as you can .. this can be a problem with PC architecture .. ( whose bright idea was it that 16 interrupts would be enough then ?) but if reliabilty really is important its the way to go. (after scsi, natch :) -- Robin Szemeti The box said "requires windows 95 or better" So I installed Linux!
Re: upgrade fund
On Mon, 26 Mar 2001, Robin Szemeti wrote: scsi multithreads, IDE doesn't.. this makes quite a difference on multi-process applications .. esp. servers I will vouch for this having just loaded a ~1Gb database on my laptop - it takes about 2-3 times longer on IDE here than it would on an otherwise similarly specified machine with SCSI disks - this is because IDE has a greater need to serialize the multiple reads and writes required for this operation /J\
Re: upgrade fund
On Mon, Mar 26, 2001 at 07:02:59PM +0100, Robin Szemeti wrote: On Mon, 26 Mar 2001, David Cantrell: Anyone know of any good sources of cheap, BIG hard disks atm? Like in the 70 to 100Gb range, IDE? Speed not an issue, reliability is as these are for my server. I need^Wwant six, and would rather not pay the 250-odd quid for reliability you want scsi .. ever wondered why scsi costs more? .. the drives are generally built to a better spec. No, the drives are frequently exactly the same mechanics with a different board. Anyway, by reliable I mean "not sold by some dodgy bloke in a computer fair who threw them down the stairs a few times" and. AFAICT SCSI costs more because you're paying for the 'brand'. when it comes to servers for speed you want scsi ...esp under linux .. It is my impression that SCSI only becomes worthwhile if you're expecting lots of reads and writes at the same time. (ISTR that the 2.4 kernel will have ultra-ata 66 support .. prior to that you just get basic IDE AFAIK) Naah, it's a personal server, which I should probably have pointed out. It has one user - me - and is used mainly for backups and for burning CDs. I believe you get ATA 33 in 2.2.something, but I don't particularly give a shit. scsi multithreads, IDE doesn't.. this makes quite a difference on multi-process applications .. esp. servers I don't need that. It matters not to me if it takes a few seconds extra to copy a file. And in any case, I'll be spreading the load over at least two - possibly three - IDE controllers which should mitigate this to a certain extent. -- David Cantrell | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david/ This is a signature. There are many like it but this one is mine. ** I read encrypted mail first, so encrypt if your message is important ** PGP signature
Re: upgrade fund
On Mon, 26 Mar 2001, you wrote: No, the drives are frequently exactly the same mechanics with a different board. Anyway, by reliable I mean "not sold by some dodgy bloke in a computer fair who threw them down the stairs a few times" and. AFAICT SCSI costs more because you're paying for the 'brand'. Naah, it's a personal server, which I should probably have pointed out. It has one user - me - and is used mainly for backups and for burning CDs. right .. got it .. I thought you meant the 'must run for 10,000 hrs, hot swap PSU's and a generator outside' type reliability .. you jsut mean 'don;t fall over every week' sort of reliability .. Usually when people talk about servers with 600 gigabytes of data its fair to assume that their will be a considerable load on them, clearly thats not the case here .. so I'm sure IDE will be just fine. Pity, I know of some very nice rack mount RAID solutions with fibrechannel architecture and up to a terrabyte in 3U ... sure you can;t be tempted ? ;) -- Robin Szemeti The box said "requires windows 95 or better" So I installed Linux!
Re: upgrade fund
At 22:17 25/03/2001, you wrote: unless anyone has any arguments, i'll buy a fast, reliable largish hard drive and lots of memory (i understand it's cheap at the moment) for penderel (the computer) this week. i'd like to do it via dabs.com, because their interface is useable and i've not personally had any problems with them. i'll pick only in-stock stuff because i understand that they can be slacker than they advertise when it comes to re-stocking. jo would hopefully oversee the process so i don't end up ordering bananas by mistake. are the mungers happy with this approach? or would you prefer bananas? Sounds good to me. Can we have bananas too? Dave... [hungry] -- http://www.dave.org.uk SMS: [EMAIL PROTECTED] plugData Munging with Perl http://www.manning.com/cross//plug
